POLICE are investigating “threats” made by a carpet cleaning company over a woman missing her appointment – because she had suffered a miscarriage and was in hospital at the time.

Charlotte Coutts and husband Dean booked an appointment with Clean Carpets Plymouth back in January.But the couple were struck by tragedy when pregnant Charlotte lost her baby and had to be admitted to hospital.

The pair, who live in Plymouth, say they tried to cancel the booking, but were told by the company they would be charged £85 for missing it – and then threatened with having to pay an extra £1,000 in “admin fees” for continuing to respond to its text messages.

During a series of increasingly aggressive texts, the firm, based in the Tavistock area of the city, insisted Charlotte and Dean owed them money – as cancelling an appointment with less than 48 hours notice meant paying an £85 fee, as stated in a post pinned to the top of their Facebook page.

However the couple claims they were not told of this policy, did not sign any paperwork, and had made and cancelled the appointment within 24 hours – therefore not allowing them to give 48 hours’ notice.

When Charlotte, 22, refused to pay and called their behaviour “unprofessional”, the company responded in a text message saying: “Professional enough that the rest of your family loved us'